Another Sabalo.....

[craiggamesh]

Very true

[Bemm 52]

Ya gotta give it a name Craig........not shark bait

[craiggamesh]

Ya gotta give it a name Craig........not shark bait

I'm thinkin', I'm thinkin'.

[craiggamesh]

Got the scuppers done last nite. I did not do much today. Had to work, and when I got home it was still 105 F . I thought I had left that behind when I moved out of Arizona.

Tank well scupper:
I wanted the transducer to be removable but still mount flush. Unfortunately, I do not have a round one. Instead, it is a skimmer transducer, and was too long for the rear scupper. So I used a flush cut bit in my router and cut the square hole. Then, I put in a 1/4 round cove bit with guide ball bearing with a 1/2 inch radius to cut a little further forward of the scupper. I knew that I would breach the hull a little in front of the rear bulkhead so, I had to build up the area on the inside just ahead of the rear bulkhead and do a "middle pour".



Then, after it set up, I used the router and 1/4 round cove bit on the bottom of the scupper to rout out the area that the front of the skimmer transducer fits in.



Here is a couple views with the transducer.




Now I just have to tape it with glass/epoxy to seal it up good. I used a 1/4 inch round over bit to round over the edges so it would be easier to glass.

[craiggamesh]

Forgot to mention the front scuppers. All I can say is 'ya gotta love hole saws' . I used a 2 inch hole saw and cut a hole in each scupper. Then I taped the bottom of the holes with plastic packing tape and filled the scuppers with about 3/4 of an inch of "thin" epoxy wood flower. This was done while the boat was right side up and level. Then, after it hardened, I flipped the boat bottom side up (hope that doesn't happen too often with me in it) and I had two pretty brown 2 inch circles. I drilled through with a 1 3/4 inch hole saw and used the router with the round over bit to round over the bottom of these holes. There is no wooden edge exposed to water now.

Two cockpit scuppers from the bottom

Two cockpit scuppers from the top

close up of the bottom side


I decided against the large scuppers late in the game which is why I had to modify from Matt's plans. I have too many tools that could be dropped in the cockpit and inadvertently kicked down the large holes.

Now I just have to sand everything real nice and finish all the fill coats and epoxy/graphite coats.

[preacher]

I really like that transducer setup and the front scuppers are a great inovation.

Question; I'm a novice router user at best. Is that work tedious and difficult, or do you think I will be able to do the same thing if I just go slowly and carefully?

[craiggamesh]

Question; I'm a novice router user at best. Is that work tedious and difficult, or do you think I will be able to do the same thing if I just go slowly and carefully?

If I can do it anyone can . Actually, if you use the right bits and are careful, its easy. For this project I used a flush cut bit for cutting all panels to size from oriented strand board templates. I did the same on my strip built pirogue.

The same bit is what I used to cut the tank well scupper. You drill a hole, put the router bit through, cut towards one edge, then let the ball bearing guides run along the perimeter of the scupper wall for a nice flush cut.


Then, on the tank well scupper, I used the bit shown below to rout out the cove. Again, the bearing made it easy. I started cutting shallow and progressively cutting deeper by lovering the bit. That way the bearing always had the scupper wall as a guide. I did that until I had the right depth. My router base is cast metal so there was a nice straight line where the 2 sides of the mold met on it. I used that line to line the router base up with the keel line of the boat.



Then, I used the round over bit to ease the edges of the tank well scupper so it would be easier to fiberglass. I also used it on the front scuppers. Due to filling the scuppers part way with epoxy/wood flower, there was plenty of edge for the bearing to run on.



Here it is after fiberglass application:


I hope that helped answer your question. I love the utility of the router, I would advise using it every time you can. It makes so many jobs easier. Also, the whole process mentioned above only took 10-15 minutes. Most of which was spent finding and changing bits.

[craiggamesh]

Preacher,
Here is a great source if you don't have a good selection of bits near you.
http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite ... flush.html

[LIGHT KEEPER'S KID]

Great Work and Pics

Mike

[craiggamesh]

Thanks Mike.

I got the first coat of graphite epoxy on. I mixed it 20 ml graphite to 60 ml epoxy and rolled it on. I needed 2 1/2 batches to cover the bottom area I had taped off.

That is the first time in my boat building "career" I have used this stuff. It went on relatively easy. Its the first time I have ever used a roller as well. I usually put on very thin fill coats with a squeegee. I think I will be switching to rollers from now on. Now I have go buy some more.



PS - My wife told me she thought it looked quite nice. Does this mean that this boat won't be mine when its done??